Show FIRST FIGHT WON A stirring 9 item appears lp li the telegraphic columns of the news today rendered more so because of its departure from the class of information 1 we have previously received since the trouble troubles leading up to the war and the wax war itself began the events reported have hardly kept pace with publio public anticipation while the fact that hostilities tili ties had really commenced made the m majority of people anxious to hear of a decisive engagement somewhere captures have beo become orne commonplace by reason of frequency the shifting shit ting of fleets squadrons and ships were only notes of preparation tending to sharpen the appetite instead of appeasing it and all other things in that connection became insufferably tame the average reader had got to exclaiming as hamlet did to laertes 1 I pray you pass page with your best violence well it is to be hoped he has found gratification to some extent at last according to the accounts furnished the spaniards have succeeded in drawing our fire and in getting a foret foretaste aate of the fighting quality which is arrayed against them at matanzas Matan yesterday a shot was fired from the fortified position of the spanish it was aimed at the big battleship new york but did no execution whatever drawing nearer to get a good range and thereby giving the enemy a better chance the now new york abd the two there others compos 1 ing na the blockading force farce return returned edthe the compa compliment ment with interest in the shave of a of bombere bombshells bomb shells ila quite an active ore ahre woe was kept up for about eighteen teen minutes at the end of time the fortifications were in ruins every shot from our side having taken effect no fatalities fatal Ittes aie are so far reported but it is hardly probable atele that with so 80 much destruction accomplished no IQ one was hurt indeed it is belli believed eved that many spaniards were killed another dispatch gives the spanish side aide of the affair as received at madrid ut it was that the fight lasted an hout hour la and nd the americans were compelled to retreat that they dad withdraw is equivalent to saying that a man goes homo home when he with the business of the day the spaniards bal began fan the fight and aind the americans dosed closed it having hav ings olle silenced need everything on shore and placed itoe forts on either side of the bay completely hors bore du combat then waiting in vain a reasonable time for the Sp spanish amish to resume offe offensive asive operations the went back to where they were originally sent and from whence they had not emerged but tor for being called forth by the necessities of the case it was a complete american victory all the more gratifying because fore shadowing the kind of work our forces will do when once they are turned loose it should be remembered red that no general orders to fight except in re yet befit houed ahen are given wit there will be some hard fighting or some fast run nang and both between the american coast and that of spain |